"A [preacher] who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they are necessarily reflected in his [preaching]." — BXVI

28 January 2016

Preachers need wisdom and humility

Feast of St.
Thomas Aquinas, OP

Fr. Philip Neri
Powell, OP

Notre Dame
Seminary, NOLA

Thomas
Aquinas: philosopher, theologian, scripture scholar, university
professor, composer of hymns, jurist, consultant to Popes and
councils, Doctor
Angelicus,Doctor
Communis, and,
of course, every seminarians' favorite title, Dumb Ox! Before he
wrote the Summa
contra gentiles
and before he wrote the Summa
theologiae,
and before he composed the Tantum
Ergo
and the Pange
Ligua,
and before he was named a Doctor of the Church and gifted the Church
with a theological foundation that still breathes 742 years after his
death, before all of these and more. . .Thomas flourished as a
Dominican friar, a preacher. And everything we wrote, taught, sang,
and studied he did for the sake of preaching the Gospel. For the Dumb
Ox, preaching endured as that
without which
his commentaries, hymns, treatises, and books turned to straw. For
us, the fruits of his contemplation constitute a body of human wisdom
unsurpassed in subtlety, complexity, and depth, and gift us with the
means of both perfecting ourselves and our preaching. Underneath
Thomas' preaching, supporting his mission and ministry, stands the
slender straws of wisdom and humility.

On
the nature of wisdom, Thomas writes, “According to [Aristotle]
(Metaph.
i: 2), it belongs to wisdom to consider the highest cause.
By means of that cause
we are able to form a most certain judgment about other causes,
and according thereto all things should be set in order…Accordingly,
it belongs to the wisdom that is an intellectualvirtue
to pronounce right judgment about Divine things after reason has made
its inquiry…”(ST
II-II.45.1-2).
More simply put, wisdom is that habit of mind that seeks to discover
and study the final causes of all things and put these things in
their proper order given their final cause. Therefore, Wisdom does
not enlighten us like some occult swamp-spirit that flits around
waiting for the right moment to sting. Nor does Wisdom live among the
tacky tomes of Retail Gnosticism that litter the shelves of B&N.
These “wisdoms” – little more than leftover paganism muscled-up
with psychobabble – these wisdoms gift the weak ego with a shot of
faux courage and urges the newly self-anointed guru to adore him or
herself. But from the wisest teacher of them all, we know that:
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles
himself will be exalted.”

When
we acknowledge that we live and move and have our being in God, when
we humble ourselves, we participate in His wisdom. When we
participate in His wisdom – seeking the final causes of all things
– we enter contemplation and prepare ourselves to share the fruits
of our contemplation. And when we share the fruits of our
contemplation, we preach the Good News. When we study, we prepare to
preach. When we pray, we prepare to preach. When we minister, we
prepare to preach. When we rest, we prepare to preach. For Thomas,
and for us if we hope to grow in holiness, preaching endures as that
without which
our papers, our essays and presentations, our teaching and our
research turns to straw. Whether we preach from the pulpit, the
street corner, the dining room table, or the classroom lectern, our
vowed task remains: to go ad
gentes
– among the peoples – and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Our Father freely offers His mercy to sinners, seducing the sinner
into salvation. If we will, we live and move and have our being as
His mercy-filled instruments.